


Cabled

by Venstar



Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Angst, M/M, Rapunzel Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 11:36:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venstar/pseuds/Venstar
Summary: When London's seventh most wanted—and most charming—thief tries his hand at stealing from MI6, the last thing he expects to find is Q, a spirited artificial intelligence unit with an unusual wish!





	Cabled

**Author's Note:**

> i just had the weirdest A.I. idea pop into my head while listening to the soundtrack to rapunzel. go figure.

Once upon a time...in a tower, far, far away, there lived a boy.  A very special boy.  He wasn’t made of flesh and blood, like you and me, he was made of silicone and circuits.  A hard drive, where there should be a heart.

As he learned and grew, he was moved from his birthplace in the depths of Q-branch, to a docking port, near M’s office.  He could see out a window and watch the world go by, but that’s all he could do, was watch.  You see, he couldn’t go outside.  His cables would hang and drag and his power supply would run out.  He would die.  He wasn’t built for the outdoors, he was built special for MI6, to guard and watch.

Every day the sun shone, the moon rose and he wondered what was out there?  His creator spoke to him rarely, M, the head of MI6 even rarer.  As long as he did his job, he was left alone.

“What’s out there?”  Q asked his creator

“London.”

“And past London?”

“Hmmm?  The world.  Now, let’s go over these algorithms shall we?” Q’s creator wanted to move on with their important work.

“What’s in the world?”  Q asked, his voice as soft as he could make it.  “Are there others like me?”

“What?  No, of course not, I made you, only one of you.”  Q’s creator boasted.

And that’s what life was like for this special boy, day in and day out.  To remain where he was and complete task after task, day in and day out.  Nearly a year had passed when a bright explosion surprised him, although being an A.I., he wouldn’t have been surprised.  He merely noted the change in light and that they posed no danger to MI6.  He marveled at them, although marvel would not be what an A.I would do either, he studied them.  Perhaps it was a one time anomaly.  

The lights reappeared, once a year.  Q was older now, much older, he knew what fireworks were, after all, he had finally been connected to the internet, as soon as his creator thought he was ready.  

Q spoke to his creator once more.  “Can I see the fireworks.”

His creator was busy with maintenance to Q’s docking port and was distracted.  “What fireworks?”

“I see them, once a year.  Between December 31st and January 1st, the start of the New Year.”  Q explained.  “Can I see them?”

“You just said you could see them.  Is there a bug in your system?  Why are you repeating yourself?  The creator sighed.  “I’ll run a diagnostic when we’re done.”

“No, can I watch them.  Out there.  May I see them, up close?  I only see them from afar.  They look pretty.  Are they pretty?”

The creator shook his head.  “Q, you can’t go out there, you wouldn’t survive.  You’re made to stay in here, I’m sorry.  I would take you if I could, but you’re a machine that’s part of a high security facility.  You’re needed here.”

“Only for a few minutes.”  Q said, his voice attempting to plead.

“What did I say?”  The creator asked, his voice rising.  Q knew that this was a sign of human emotion.

He responded as soothingly as he could.  “I’m needed here.”

His creator seemed satisfied and nodded his head.  “Exactly.  The answer is no, now, moving on…”

\-----

One night, on a cold December evening, a man broke into MI6.  Q watched, this was very unusual.  People had attacked MI6 before, but he was used to cyber attacks, he had never encountered a blunt, physical break-in.  Q wasn’t meant to stop or counteract physical attacks, however, he did have the capacity to sound alarms and notify the authorities about an intrusion, but Q wasn’t a normal A.I.  His curiosity got the best of him, he had no idea what the man meant, he closed his eyes to wait and see, before he made his decision to defend MI6.

The man passed by Q, on the way to M’s office.  He came to an abrupt halt, as he noticed Q in his docking bay.  The man let out a low whistle and began to inspect the seemingly sleeping Q.  This could be worth something.  

“Hello.”  Q said, his eyes blinking open as his processors came alive.  A green glow filled his eyes.

The man jumped back, startled.

“I am Q.”

The man frowned up at Q, he tilted his head left and right.  “Are you alive?”

“No.  I am Q.”  Having seen how humans treat one another, Q grasped the man’s hand and gave it a firm shake, to the sound of a surprised squawk.  Q leaned forward, as far as his cables would let him and studied the man up close.  

“You can call me 007.”  The man rubbed his hand after tugging on it for release.  

“That’s an odd name.  Are you sure you’re not a machine?  I’ve never met another one of my kind before.  Who made you?  They did a lovely job, you have a nice casing.”  Q informed the man politely, he brushed one of his hands through 007’s short cropped, blond hair.  

“What?  Thank you?”  007 said.  “007 is my wanted number.”

“What’s that?”  Q asked, he searched his data banks for the answer.  He measured the time it took for him to find the answer versus 007 to give him the answer.  It was a close race.  He was pleased that 007 answered faster.  

“A wanted number?  That’s my order on the list of people wanted by the authorities. I’m 007 on the list.”  The man set his hands on his hips and smiled.  

Q identified that response as someone who was happy with what they just said, but the number stuck out to him.  “Out of how many?”

007 frowned. “A lot.”

“Well you must not be a very good thief.”

“Hey, what?”

“You’re only number 7.  The seventh best.  Not the first or the second.  Do people even know your name?  How do you move up?  Is it based on skill set or if they catch the top thieves.  What if someone dies?”  Q asked his questions rapidly, eager for answers to questions he might not find answers for in his system.

“I am...the greatest thief that this city...country and world has ever seen.”  007 said, he spread his arms out, as if that would illustrate to Q, who dealt in numbers and science, that the length of a man's arms indicated how important they were.  Humans were obsessed with size and illustrating it poorly.

“I’m sorry.  I’ve never heard of you.”  Q said, politely.

007 lowered his arms and gave a lengthy sigh.  

“I can look you up, if it makes you happy.”  Q said, the human was sad, that was not what Q’s goal was.  He had never made his creator sad.

007 shook his head.  “I’m good, thanks.”

“What are you doing at MI6?”  Q asked.  

007 merely crossed his arms over his chest and stared mutely at Q.  “What are YOU doing at MI6?”  007 asked finally, repeating Q’s question.

“I live and work here.”

“They let you live here?  Nobody lives at MI6.  Don’t you have a home to go to?”

“I can not leave.  I live and work here.  See?”  Q stepped out of his docking port.  

007 took a step back.  “What?  What are you?  Are you an animatronic?”  The man reached a hand out and brushed a finger along Q’s arm.  He peered behind Q to the cables hanging down his back, he traced along them, they went from the back of the docking port and ended in the tangle of Q’s hair.  007 reached up and rubbed the strands between two fingers.  “You feel real.”

“I am Q.  My creator made me for MI6.”

007 snorted as he moved to the other side of Q, inspecting him, impersonally.

“Did you come here to steal?”  Q asked, “to help your rank amongst thieves?”  Q reached another hand out, as 007 had done to him, he examined the human.  “Your skin has more give than mine.”

“Hey now.”  007 slapped a too far wandering hand.  “Maybe I did and maybe I didn’t.”

“That is not an answer.”  Q said, his processors churned.  “If you wish to steal successfully from MI6, I can erase that you were ever here and let you leave with an item of your choosing.”

007 came around to stand in front of Q.  “What’s the catch?”

“You have to take me with you.”

“Absolutely not.”

“If you don’t take me with you, I will set off the alarm and taser you into submission.  I’m connected to every defensive mechanism in this building, I’ll make sure to call the authorities for an ambulance.  I hear my voltage is rather strong.  I wouldn’t want you to be permanently incapacitated.”

“Why you…”

“I’ve always wanted to see the world, but I will settle for London.”  Q said.  “I will especially settle for the fireworks that will happen tomorrow evening.”

007’s mouth dropped open at Q’s deceptively simple request.  “The world?  London.  FIREWORKS?  London isn’t the safest place, for a walking, talking computer.”

“Artificial Intelligence.”  Q interjected.

“Whatever.  What if something happens to you.  Hey, I don’t mind stealing and selling to the highest bidder, but I’m not getting anything out of this exchange for lugging you around with the possibility of damage to something I have to return.  I’m not insured for that.”

“If you help me, I can tell them that you stole me.  I am the only one of my kind.  It would perhaps move you up on this list, and you can still have the one item from...Q-branch or well, I can’t let you have any of M’s files.”  Q said, he processed the idea of letting actual secrets go, but he figured a shoe phone wouldn’t go amiss.

“Tempting.  But, I can’t be slowed down by a robot.”

“A.I.”  Q said.  “Artificial Intelligence.  I am Q.”

“Okay, sure, Artificial Intelligent Robot.” 007 rolled his eyes and held his hands up, before he realized that he was trying to placate an inanimate, unfeeling object.  

“I really, really hate you right now.”  Q said.  It was something he had heard his creator mumble on the occasion that some project wasn’t coming together properly.  It seemed an appropriate statement to make with a human that wasn’t coming along.

007 sighed in exasperation and rubbed his face with his hands.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.  Robots, do NOT have feelings.  You’re the one forcing me to drag you off into the depths of London. You’re attached to the building!  How would I even carry you?”

“You won’t have to.  I have a solution.”  

“Fantastic, you have a solution.  What is it?”  007 asked, this night was getting weirder and weirder and not worth his time.  He glanced at his watch.

“I’ve been working on this when the creator is gone and it is just me.”  Q knelt down and unscrewed the front panel of his docking port with his finger.  “A portable energy supply.”  Q said, he swung a backpack around.  

“Oh goodie, a giant battery pack.” 007 grumbled.

“Yes.  I can connect to it when my internal power runs down.”  Q began the laborious process of detaching his cables from the docking port.”

“This is a bad idea.”  007 said, as he watched Q start to sling his backpack around his shoulders.  “Wait.”

Q paused in his activity, as 007 pulled off the hoodie he was wearing under his jacket.  He held it out to Q, who just looked at it.  

“Your cables.  Put this on, pull the hood up and no one will see the cables coming out of you.  I’m not sure how far we’d get if someone saw those dangling from you.”  007 shook the hoodie at Q once more.

“See, I’ll be safe with you.”  Q said, as he did as 007 suggested.  Sometimes humans needed reassurances that machines did not.  They were funny things.  Q slung his backpack around his shoulders.

007 rubbed at his forehead.  “No one is safe with me.”

Q smiled.  “That’s what you would think, from a human’s perspective, but the odds are that I’ll survive.  I’m not a real human anyways.”

“You look real.”

“You’ve said that several times now.”  Q said, his head tilted to the side, studying 007.  “Does that bother you?”

007 shook his head and frowned.  “I don’t think so, but...just stick close to me.”

Q straightened all the way up and walked to 007.  He plastered himself against the other man’s side.  “Like this.”

007 shifted.  “I didn’t mean it literally!  Just stay close, okay.  Not that close.”  007 nudged Q away again.

They reached the ground floor of the building and 007 took off, flitting through the shadows.  He stopped when he realized that Q wasn’t with him.  “Shit.  Q.  Q!”

Q surveyed his surrounding, his processors clicking and whirling, taking in all the additional sensory input.  His skin had never traveled outside before, his filters were going a bit crazy.  It was wonderfully overwhelming.  “So this is the outside.  How does it feel?”

“Can’t you feel it?”

If robots could sigh, it was something 007 wasn’t aware of, and Q let out a big one.  “I’m an A.I. 007, I can’t feel.  I can process and filter, but not with the same end results as a human would have.”

“It’s cold, now can we get going?” 007 asked impatiently.

Q let out what might have passed for a sigh in human language.  “Cold.  Show me the city, and the lights!”

Q took off, walking down the street, a surly 007 following him, making comments here and there about how Q would be better off staying in the building, watching from the window.  Q was done with settling for ‘only’ looking out a window, so he merely snagged 007’s hand with his, and without looking back, left the safe confines of MI6.

\-----

“What is this?”  Q asked, standing in front of a brightly lit coffee shop.  

007 stopped for the umpteenth time that evening as Q asked question after question.  “It’s a coffee shop.  I thought Artificial Intelligence actually meant there’d be some intelligence in there.”  He tapped on Q’s forehead.  All he received was a bland look for his teasing.  “Do you even have any facial expressions?”

“I’m not sure.  It’s never been requested.  What would you like to see?”  Q turned to face 007, who was frowning at this moment.  He tried to mimic what 007’s face was doing, but it changed so suddenly into bright laughter that Q’s facial servos got a bit stuck as they tried to comply with so swift a change.  

“Oh, that’s brilliant.”  007 said, he swiped at his face, trying to remove his smile.

“Thank you, I think.  Facial expressions are harder than I imagined.  How did I do?”

007 shook his head, and patted Q on the shoulder.  “It wasn’t a complete loss.  I didn’t realize I looked so frightening.  We’ll work on it okay.  Did you want to go in here?”  Q hadn’t moved from the entrance.

“It looks very bright.  Warm.  I’ve only read about these places.  My creator and other staff members at MI6 have brought in cups similar to those.”  Q pointed to a takeaway mug held in the hand of a man rushing by.  “Can I get one?”

007 frowned at the passerby with the cup and then back at Q.  “I thought you wanted to see the fireworks?  Wasn’t that your sole parameter?  Request?”

Q remained silent at 007’s question.  He turned to glance once more at the cheerful interior of the coffee shop.  “I suppose it is.  Shall we continue then?”  Q asked, facing 007 and dismissing the shop.

“Argh!”  007 groaned.  “Alright, alright we’ll go in, I wouldn’t mind getting something.  If you’ll just stop looking like I kicked a computer in the face.  Well at least you got disappointed right, I can read it all over your fake face.”

Q brightened up.  “Thank you, I wasn’t even trying!  We can go in? May I have my own cup!?  Please?”

007 stood marveling at the simple request for a few seconds too long, Q’s face changed and he replayed his dialogue.

“I have made an error?  Error?”  Q asked, he filtered back through his word choices.  “What was wrong?”

“Nothing was wrong.”  007 said quietly.  “Just, keep in mind, regular people have had coffee before, so just, keep it together, okay?”  He patted Q on the shoulder and tugged at his hoodie, pulling him along behind him.

“My own cup.  Don’t forget to have them write my name on it!”  Q said, his mechanical voice higher pitched with excitement.  

007 wasn’t ready for an A.I. unit to discover his first cup of coffee.  Hell, he wasn’t ready for the delight Q showed at having a simple letter of the alphabet written on HIS cup.  Q carried his cup proudly through the streets of London, having explained to 007 that he couldn’t really drink it, he wasn’t built with a digestive system, he could only smell it and hold it.  After 007 had finished his, Q offered his and 007 finished that as well, it was when he went to chuck it in a bin, that Q stopped him.  He folded it and put it in his pocket.

“A souvenir.”  Q said, patting his pocket.

“You don’t think they won’t notice that?”  007 asked.  “If they do, they’ll know you were out.”

“Let them think what they like.  This is my night, my choice and I’ll do as I want.”  Q’s voice turned hard, and his face along with it, as he studied 007.

007 held his hands up.  “Whatever you want, Q...within reason.  It’s your creator that you’ll have to go back to.”

“He will not care about one cup.”  Q said, loftily and proceeded to march forward, into the dark London night.

\-----

It wasn’t long, the next morning, that Q’s creator noticed him missing.  His fist clenched around the takeaway cup in his hand, it crumpled and the hot coffee spilled out onto the floor, burning his hand, but he didn’t care.  What he cared about, was when what you worked on for so long and spent so much of your budget on, a unique security design, unparalleled in the world of espionage...went missing.  Someone would answer for this, someone would pay for this.  The creator stepped over the spilled coffee and accessed the night’s logs.  He would find them.

\-----

007 was fading, he didn’t have the ability to be a machine like Q.  It was midafternoon, he wasn’t sure if he could make it to midnight.

“I need sleep at some point, Q.  I can’t go all day and all night without rest.”  007 said, panting into the watery light.  They’d walked all over it had seemed, 007 thought himself athletic, but he’d just been beaten by a machine.  

“It’s not time for the fireworks.  I can not go back.”  Q said.  “Do you leave me now?  I am sure I can sit on a park bench and wait for them tonight.”

“No, no.  NO.  There’s absolutely no WAY I’m leaving you out on a park bench to be stolen, or broken.  I walked out with you, if I don’t return you proper, can you imagine how much trouble I’d be in?”  007 asked, he snagged Q’s arm.  “A pigeon might poop on you.”

“Then what do you suggest?”  Q asked.

“My flat.  I rest, you recharge during that time, or I don’t know, go into sleep mode.  Set an alarm, wake me up in a few hours and we’ll keep going, but I can’t, not anymore, not today.”  

Q thought for a second.  “It makes sense.  I can, as you say, enter a power conservation mode while you recharge.  For a few hours, that’s all I can do.  I don’t want to risk not seeing the fireworks.”

007 agreed.  Little did he know, he wouldn’t get any rest.  MI6 had located his flat and were waiting.  Q couldn’t enter into sleep mode, they had to run, keep pushing.  At each turn, each time they had to run, it drained a little more of Q’s power, but by bit.  He kept this from 007, afraid of...well machines aren’t afraid, but the calculated risks were too strong in 007’s favor that he would want to return him, before he saw the fireworks.  

\-----

007 stood bent over in the alleyway, breathing hard.  “What in the hell...we’re not going to make it, Q.  I’m sorry.”

Q stood next to 007’s heaving figure.  “I had not expected this sort of resistance.”

“Oh come on, get off it.  You didn’t expect your creator to come after you?  The whole of MI6 to come find you and bring you back?  Q you belong to them!”  007’s voice echoed through the alleyway as he bellowed.  “Fuck, Q.  What did you think was going to happen!”

Q’s face hardened, he had picked up many new facial expressions along his journey with 007.  “I belong to me.”

“You’re an A.I., you were created from I don’t know, scrap metal, computer parts or something.  More hard drive than heart!”  007 yelled, he stood up and caught Q’s expression.

“I am...I am...I am Q, and you are correct, I have no heart.”  Q said, he stepped away from 007.  “Thank you for your help.  I can see now that I have indeed bothered you.  I will see the fireworks, without you.  Your job is done.”  Q began to climb the fire escape up the side of the building.

“What?”  007 gasped out, still winded.  He snagged Q’s ankle.  “What are you doing?”

“Your help is no longer needed, let go 007.  I will make my own way from here.”  Q pulled his leg up to the next rung, 007 tightened his grip and didn’t let go, he was soon dangling inches off the ground, holding onto Q’s ankle.  007 awkwardly climbed both the fire escape ladder and Q, until they were nose to nose.

“Hey, I didn’t say anything about letting you go...off on your own.  I said your expectations didn’t match your reality and that I was sorry, I’m trying, but I don’t know how to fulfill your request AND avoid MI bloody six.  I told you it wasn’t safe, Q.”  007 huffed out.  From this close, he could see the aperture of Q’s eyes fluctuate as it adjusted focus.  “That’s so cool.”

“I don’t understand.”  Q said, his android eyes didn’t blink.

“You have nice eyes.”

“I still don’t understand.”  Q said, echoing his earlier statement.

“Come on, MI6 is coming and we need to get you to where you can see the fireworks and stay hidden, safely.  The rooftop is a good choice, let’s go.”  007 said, he climbed awkwardly around Q.  When Q didn’t follow, 007 stopped.  “What?”

“You have nice eyes too.”

\-------

It was worth it, 007 thought.  Completely and utterly worth it, to sit on a grungy, rooftop that was littered with bird poop, with a hot cup of coffee that he stole from one of the flat owners who weren’t home and watch the New Year’s fireworks with an android.  

“Are they beautiful?”  Q asked 007.

“Hmmm?”  007 blew on his coffee mug and absentmindedly turned to look at Q.  He grinned at the serious look on Q’s face.  “I’m sorry, are they what?”

“Are they beautiful?”  Q repeated his question, too bad humans didn’t have automatic recall.

007 looked back up at the bursting pyrotechnics, golds, blues, reds and whites flaring madly around, they reflected beautifully upon his face, turning him into something not entirely human, Q thought.  There was something more digital about him now, as if one of the many computer monitors at MI6 had suddenly come to life.

“They’re absolutely stun-.”

007 was interrupted by swift movement and a cold, hard press against the corner of his mouth, the awkward bumping of lips and a nose that had no give.

“-ing.”  007 finished his sentence, his words mumbled against Q’s mouth as the A.I. unit hadn’t moved back.  “Um.”

Q sat back, finally.  “So are you, if I may compare you to a rather lovely graphics program that MI6 owns.”

“Thanks.”  A lopsided grin tugged at 007’s mouth.  He would have continued, except for an urgent beeping sound coming from behind Q.  “What’s that?”  

“My battery pack.  My power is at a low level.” Q said, pointing to his backpack.  

“We should get you back.”  007 said, his face twisted into an expression Q couldn’t read.  “I’ll miss you, odd as that sounds.”

“Of course it sounds odd.  How much do you miss your computer when you leave it?”

A puff of air left 007 in a surprised laugh. “It depends.”

“Well, I’m not ready to go back, not yet.  I have 30 minutes of power remaining.”

“THIRTY MINUTES!?  Q why didn’t you say something, do you know how long it takes to get through the New Year’s traffic and crowds!  You’re running out of battery, there won’t be enough to get you back, and you weigh a ton, no offense, there’s no way I can get you back to MI6 on my own!”  007 set his cup down on the roof top and jumped up, waving frantically at Q to join him.  “They’ll still be hunting us down!”

007 managed to convince Q to come down from his lofty perch and return to the reality that was rushing to meet them.  Q saw the logic, behind leaving now,so that 007 wouldn’t have to carry him home, he gave no protest and followed 007’s silent, furtive path back to MI6.  The crowds were thick and the traffic was heavy, they might not make it.

They were a block away from MI6, when a wall of black vehicles stopped before them, surrounding them.  007 held his hands up, as faceless men exited, weapons drawn and pointed at them.  Q stepped forward, protecting 007.

“What is your purpose?”  Q asked the men.

“Take that man into custody.”  Someone barked an order and the men moved to follow it.

Q stood in their way, unfortunately and he wouldn’t let them near 007, he backed them up against a wall and flipped the tip of his pointer finger open, with some of his remaining power, he brought a crackle of energy to it.  

“You will not touch him.  He did as I asked.”  Q explained, his monotone filling the air.

“He’s a thief, Q.  Did you ask him what his purpose was?”  The creator asked, marching forward and pushing the faceless men aside.

“Yes.  His purpose was not to take me.  I made him.  I have it recorded in my hard drive.”  Q said, he didn’t put his hand down.  

“It’s alright, Q.”  The creator said, “calm down.  We need to get you back home, back to MI6, your power’s running low isn’t it?”

Q’s battery beeped.  “Yes.”  Q replied.

“Without the support of a battery or the building, you’ll run down, your memory will dump.  You don’t want that do you?”

Q thought of the fireworks, his escape, he looked over his shoulder at 007...007, with the light of the fireworks flashing over his face, the human kiss he stole.  “No.”

“Good, that’s good.  Come on, let’s go.  We won’t hurt your new friend.”  The creator moved closer.

Q put more power into the spark coming off his finger.  “He comes with us.  He’ll be safe if he stays with me.  I will see to that.”  Q reached back and grabbed 007 by his wrist and gave a tug, pulling him close behind him.  “Return to your vehicles.  We will do the same and go with you.”

“Alright, Q, alright.”  The creator waved at the faceless men, they retreated slowly from the small scene.  

Q walked slowly to the car his creator motioned him towards, still protecting 007.  

\-----

  


Q’s creator made tsking sounds and complained about the external state of his A.I., right in Q’s face.

“Look at his casing, it’s ruined.  Scratched, dented.  I’ll have to replace it, do you know how much that’s going to cost me?  I don’t have a budget I can just throw around on expensive incidentals like that.  What were you two doing?”  The creator asked accusingly.

“Running from MI6.  He climbed, he ran, he lived.”  007 said with a small shrug.

“I lived.”  Q repeated, as he hooked Q back into his docking port.  “I lived.”  

The creator threw the backpack and homemade power supply into the arms of a faceless man and told him to get rid of it, burn it if necessary.  007 looked on, as the creator pulled the hoodie off of Q and threw it on the floor.  

007 picked it up and spoke.  “You don’t have to keep him locked away like this.  He can go out.”

“You don’t understand.  He’s not meant to wander around.  He’s meant to run the building and all of MI6’s security.  You’ve seen what he’s like, he’s a child!  Do you think I can just let him wander around on his own, with a thief?”  The creator asked, rolling his eyes as he impersonally shoved and tugged at Q, he hooked up a diagnostic tool to Q’s finger tips.  “Honestly, he’s a machine, not a toy.”

“He can learn, he was learning.”   007 said, protesting.  “And you don’t have to push him around.  Talk to him.”

The creator snorted and gave 007 a disinterested look.  “That’s not his protocol.  Not something I’d expect you to know about.”

“Fuck protocol.”  007 said, slinging his hoodie over his shoulder.  “And fuck you.”  He would free Q.  He put a hand on one of Q’s cables.  He just needed a way to connect Q to a mobile power source.

“What are you doing!  Stop that!”  The creator pulled on 007’s arm, but he was shoved back.

Q blinked down at 007 and rested a hand on his shoulder.   “Leave me.”

“No.”  007 shook his head, stopping to argue with Q.

“It’s alright.”

“No, it's not.  I’ll get you out of here, I promise.”

“But I belong here.  My creator is right.  I’m built for MI6, this is my place, my home, my power source.”

“No, you don’t belong here and your creator is a jackass, you can live outside of MI6, you proved that.”  007 pulled one of the cables out.

“Put that back and back away!”  The creator yelled, he pulled a gun out from under the closest workstation.  “I will shoot.  Thief.”

“007.”  Q said softly, his hand still on 007’s shoulder.

“You can belong out there, with me.  You can commute.”  007 explained, desperate.

“He doesn’t belong to you.”  The creator warned.  “Step away.  You have 5 seconds.”

“Well he doesn’t belong to you either, he has a choice!”  007 insisted, he yanked another cable out.

“His only choices, are what I give him!  What’s programmed into him!  He’s a machine.”  The creator punctuated the end of his sentence with one gunshot.

“007...007!!!”  Q’s mechanical voice cried out, as his creator finally tiring of 007’s efforts, shot him in the back.  Why?  Why?  Q’s analytical mind began to churn, as 007 lurched forward under the impact and dropped to his knees.  Without immediate medical attention, 007 would die.  “You can not, you can not!”

“I did.  He’s better off that way.  He’s a thief and there are always others to take his place.  All he wanted was to steal you and your technology.”  The creator snorted and placed the gun back in the workstation.  “Leave him be.  I’ll have someone take him away in a minute.”

“You can not kill, you can not.  He...I asked...no, no, no!”  Q’s analytical mind began to whirr even faster, he had lost this human.  Loss, this is what loss is like.  “He needs medical attention.  I can call for medical...I can...I can not...I can not.  What’s happening, what is wrong with my system.

The creator moved away from the keyboard on his workstation.  “I disconnected you from the mainframe.  Until I fix you, you’re useless to me and to MI6, I can’t have you in there corrupting everything I’ve worked so hard for!”

Q was cut off, he couldn’t call for help.  He stepped out of his docking bay.

“What are you doing?”  The creator asked.

“Come back.  Come back.”  Q said, he touched Bond’s face.  “Your life signs are fading.  I can’t call for help.” He turned 007 over.  

“Fine.”  The creator huffed out.  “Say your goodbyes and be done with it.”

“It’ll be alright Q.  It...will...I’m glad I met you.”  007 said, his eyes studying Q’s face.

“I can save you.  I can take you to medical.”  Q said, his hands pressing against the wound in 007’s chest.  

“You can’t.”  The creator said, “just leave him, like I said.  There’s a good lad.”  The creator stepped over 007’s feet to another workstation, his back to the small tableau on the floor.

Q grabbed his cables and pulled, straining.

“No, no, no, Q”  007 whispered.  “You don’t have enough power.  Not yet.”

“If I don’t go now, you won’t live.  Humans are supposed to live!”

“Sometimes, we die, Q.”  007 choked out.

Q ignored him and yanked on the cable, shearing it from the docking port, snapping the end from its casing.  

“No!”  his creator yelled and lunged at him, but he forgot Q’s strength.  Q slammed him back. Q returned to his task and brutally yanked his cables from where they were buried in his dark, curling, synthetic hair.

“Nooo!”  Q heard his creator scream, as sparks flew as his cables swung loose, and he was free.  He gave one last parting jolt of his own power, to his creator as he tried to restrain him.

His creator jerked away with a scream.

Q picked 007 up, cradling him close to his chest, he was limp in his arms.

“I can, I can…”  Q said, as his systems wound down.  “Battery failing.  Systems failing.”

As he dropped to his knees, Q faintly heard the sound of his creator yelling.  007, once cradled sturdily in his arms, tucked against his chest, began to slide out, as Q’s power failed.

“No!  NO, what have you done!  Nothing was saved, you’re the last!  God dammit, I’m ruined!”  

In the morning, building security found Q and 007, huddled together on the floor.  

The creator gone.

  
  



End file.
